Depp to play Hunter S. Thompson again

The Rum Diary: Johnny Depp Channels his inner Hunter S. Thompson Again
Johnny Depp, whose face has remained freakishly pristine, has been actively working on an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary since 2007, and a movie version of some kind has been in the works since 2000. But the wait is over! Depp stars as Paul Kemp, a journalist who goes to Puerto Rico in the fifties — presumably on an assignment, though one wonders whether that assignment is to be a boozy but enchanting cad. If so, assignment complete. He falls in with the about-to-be-everywhere Amber Heard and tries to take down Aaron Eckhart, who, based on this trailer, appears to be an evil turtle-bedazzler. – Movieline
The story involves a journalist named Paul Kemp, who moves from New York to work for a major newspaper, The Daily News, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Set in the late 1950s, the novel encompasses a tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust among the Americans who staff the newspaper.
Thompson himself traveled from New York to San Juan in 1960 to write for an ill-fated sports newspaper on the island. Thompson had unsuccessfully applied to work at the larger English-language daily called the San Juan Star while novelist William J. Kennedy was the editor. While in Puerto Rico, Thompson befriended many of the writers at the Star, providing the context for The Rum Diary’s fictional storyline.
Although Thompson was only 22 ^[1] when he wrote the story, it deals extensively with a fear of “going over the hill” and growing old. The prominent characters are typical of Thompson’s work; violent, maniacal and alcoholic, stumbling through life. It is written in a highly paced and rather exciting style, also typical of his work.
Thompson told PBS talk show host Charlie Rose in 1999 that he had given up the novel because it had originally “bounced about seven times – I got the standard list of rejection letters – and I came back from South America and I got into the politics of the 60s and 70s, and it was a full time job.” He then said that he revisited the book because “it’s got a romantic notion…that and money.. and I was faced with the fact of having to dig out my 40-year old story…I can’t change it, like, ‘ye gods, this is me, this is the world I lived in’…so I approached it as a writer…it’s a good story.”
It is Thompson’s second novel, preceded by the still-unpublished Prince Jellyfish.

The Rum Diary is an upcoming film based on the novel of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson. The film is directed by Bruce Robinson and stars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Filming began in Puerto Rico in March 2009. It is currently set to be released on October 28, 2011.